It's a Wonderful Life You Guys Have
by Sith Droideka
Summary: Things are not going well for Ash in Unova. He's lost two battles, his friends are either out-of-reach or angry at him, and he owes the Pokémon Center a lot of money. After he wishes that he was never born, a Victini named 'W' arrives to show him.


December 19, 105 AEG (also known as 2261 AD), was a cold day in Unova, with bitter winds, blizzards dropping snow all over, and general snowfalls, freezing rainfall, and sleet. Ice Pokémon loved the climate, but everything else did not. Ash Ketchum and his companions, Iris and Cilan, were no exception. As the snow had drifted down before turning into a blizzard, Ash, Iris, and Cilan had been left no choice but to seek shelter at a Pokémon Center along the route they were traveling on. Pikachu, Pidove, Tepig, Oshawott, Snivy, Axew, Excadrill, Pansage, and Dwebble all stared outside at the piling-up snow outside. Ash's egg was resting in its case on the table where Ash, Cilan, and Iris were eating dinner. As Ash ate, he thought of Trip, and how he had humiliated him in their last match this morning. Bianca, who they had also met up with, along with another boy named Cheren, had both watched Ash's team be defeated by his rival once again. 'It's Paul all over again,' thought Ash as he calmly ate his chicken.

"Some weather," commented the nurse as she walked through the mostly-deserted room. Since Bianca, Trip, and Cheren had already left, only Ash, Iris, and Cilan were staying overnight at the Pokémon Center.

"Yeah," said Cilan as he picked at his mashed potatoes. Iris nodded absentmindedly and gave a scrap of chicken to Axew, who hungrily devoured the scrap before striking up a conversation with Pikachu about something.

The humans continued to eat in silence before Ash said, "maybe in celebration of Christmas we can battle or something?"

"Ash, the point of this holiday is to celebrate the birth of…" Cilan said, before pausing to think. "Anyway, it's American or something, so we celebrate-"

"With commercialism," added Iris bitterly. Cilan shrugged.

"Let's battle anyway! Iris! You and Axew versus me and Pikachu!" Ash said excitedly. The girl sighed and called Axew over to her, and she nodded to accept the battle.

Cilan sighed and stood up. No Don George meant no judge, so he would fill in. "Alright!" Cilan called out once Ash, Pikachu, Iris, and Axew were in place, "the rules are simple: only one Pokémon, no substitutions, no time limit. Go!"

Pikachu started out with a Thunderbolt that hit Axew dead-on. However, Axew's dragon-type allowed the dragon to endure the attack and follow through with Scratch, which did little to Ash's already strong Pikachu. Ash laughed at the attack, which caused Iris to sharply criticize his childish behavior. Another Thunderbolt from Axew left it critically weak, so Iris threw a Sitrus Berry onto the battlefield that Axew quickly ate before blasting Pikachu with Dragon Rage. Pikachu was weakened, but stood up again and this time attacked with Iron Tail, which Axew blocked with Scratch before following with Dragon Rage. Pikachu began to pant heavily but desperately wanted to win, and so he used Volt Tackle with Ash's command. Iris smiled slightly and ordered Axew to wait until Pikachu had nearly hit it before dodging out of the way, causing Pikachu to unleash Volt Tackle on the wall instead, causing the wall to be fried and Pikachu to be KOd.

"Pikachu is unable to battle! Iris and Axew win the match!" Cilan announced. Ash couldn't believe it. He had been defeated yet again. Twice in a row. Two times in a day. In anger, he slammed his fists into the ground.

"Ash," said Iris, "don't be so childish and be a good sport." In response, Ash glared at her. Unfortunately for Ash, Nurse Joy took the opportunity to walk in.

"My WALL!" she moaned in horror, "you destroyed my wall! You! Kid with the hair!"

Iris turned to face the nurse and pointed to herself for confirmation. Nurse Joy nodded and Iris said, quite matter-of-factly, "Ash here decided to use Volt Tackle. It missed entirely and hit your wall."

"That wall was expensive! You tore up the insulation too!" Joy yelled hysterically, "You're paying for this! 800000 Poké by tomorrow morning!"

"I don't have that much money!" Ash stammered. "Cilan, Iris?"

They both shook their heads. "Sorry Ash," Cilan said, "no money."

"And with your behavior, you shouldn't rely on your friends!" snapped Iris. "I'm going to bed."

"Yeah, me too," Cilan said apologetically.

"Tomorrow," snarled Nurse Joy, "I want that money. The insurance won't pay for… that."

"Can I use the phones?" Ash called out as Nurse Joy left. She nodded her head. Ash sighed heavily and said, "go to bed, guys. Some day this is." Ash's Pokémon nodded and all left to go upstairs. Pikachu just muttered something sadly and patted Ash's shoulder, as if he was patronizing Ash. "You too," Ash said. The mouse nodded and scampered slowly to bed. Ash turned on the phone and immediately dialed Brock.

Forrest answered the phone. "Hey, Ash," he said.

"Hey, Forrest. Where's Brock?" Ash asked.

"Loan shark. Pokémon medschool is expensive," Forrest said. "The League doesn't pay for it, and we have almost no money this time of year."

"Oh," said Ash, dejected, "okay." Forrest simply turned the phone off. Ash sighed and dialed his mother.

"Hi Mom," said Ash, "I kinda broke Nurse Joy's wall-"

"I heard," Delia responded, "no money from me or Professor Oak. I'm sorry, but you need to fend for yourself. One of your friends might help you, though."

"Thanks Mom. You seem rather-" Ash said.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm tired," replied Delia, who then yawned. "Good night, Ash."

Ash hung up and called the Cerulean gym. Misty answered the phone. "Hey, Ash," she said, her eyes narrowed, "haven't heard from you in a while. You know, since the Sinnoh League. I already visited your house, but Brock told me you're on vacation."

"What?" Ash said innocently.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Misty demanded, "even while you were in Sinnoh you only called me after beating Volkner and Crasher Wake! Am I not your friend anymore or something?"

"Of course-" Ash said, but was cutoff.

"And I'm about to go to bed, Ash! The gym's cold right now, even the phone room, and I'd rather be in a warm bed or shower or something than talking with my distant friend if he's only calling for a favor or something," Misty snapped.

"Sorry, Misty, but I broke-" Ash said, but Misty shot him a death glare and turned the phone off. Ash sighed and dialed another number, but was greeted with a message saying that Max's house was currently empty. Ash sighed again and dialed yet another number.

"Hello?" asked the person at the other end of the phone. Since the number was May's Pokégear number, there was no video.

"Is this May?" asked Ash desperately.

"This is Solidad, May's on a date right now," Solidad replied. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"I'm Ash!" Ash replied, "and I need to borrow some money-"

"May has no money right now," Solidad replied. "I'm paying for her and Drew's date, since both of their families are broke right now. In fact, Norman is broke because of a huge scandal involving Lavaridge, a camera, and Champion Steven and Wallace."

"Right," said Ash, "tell her I said hello or something."

"Fine," Solidad replied, "although May did tell me that if you ever called while she was away and I answered the phone, than I was to tell you to call Misty. Did you call her?"

Ash replied, "yes," and hung up the phone. He dialed in a final number.

"You have reached the voicemail of Dawn Berlitz," the other end replied, "I am either asleep, at a contest, or I am doing something else. Please leave your name and num-"

Ash frowned at the message when suddenly Dawn said over the phone, "Hello, who is this?"

"Ash," Ash replied.

"Oh. Look, I heard from Forrest, Brock's brother, about your need for money. Right now we have no money. We lost it in a lawsuit or something," Dawn replied.

"Why?" Ash asked.

"My mom produced a play about Cyrus and Cynthia. Cynthia and Team Galactic weren't amused and managed to get the courts to give them our fortune. The appeal is taking forever, too. Oh, here comes Kenny! Bye, Ash!" Dawn said as she turned her Pokégear off.

Ash, depressed, wandered into the room. Iris and Cilan had taken the beds, so Ash had to take the couch- except that his own Pokémon hadn't taken it. Slowly, Ash felt angry again. He had been defeated- no, humiliated- by two people today. None of his friends or family could help him. He knew that calling Barry, Paul, or Gary would be futile as well. His own Pokémon had taken his sleeping spot! And to top it off, Misty had decided to hang up on him. She seemed to be one of the few people he had contact with who had no fiscal problems, but she had no sympathy whatsoever for him! "I wish I hadn't been born," muttered Ash as he fell asleep.

* * *

Ash was drifting through an odd dream. He seemed to be in a large room with walls and floors of fire. He looked up and saw a dark sky, with pillars of fire rising into the sky. Occasionally the fire would form fiery creations, from fiery Pikachus and Tepigs to fiery humans, some of whom Ash recognized. Sitting in the middle of this fiery hall was a fiery throne, over which a small, red-and-white creature with odd, v-shaped ears hovered.

"Welcome," it said, "my name is… W."

"W?" Ash asked. "Why are you in my dream?"

The creature opened its eyes and stared at Ash. Suddenly, he whipped a cigar out of nowhere and lit it. "Kid," the creature said as the creature stuck it in its mouth, "I've come to show you what the world would be like without an Ash Ketchum. In other words, I am granting your wish."

"What's with the accent, though?" Ash asked W.

"British, kid. Come on. Dusknoir's only going to allow this for a day," W replied.

"Hey, wait," Ash said as he walked towards W, "you're a Victini or something, right? Why's your name W?"

"Stands for my real name," W responded, "but you can't know that. Come on, I don't have all day. Let's take a look, shall we? Let's see Pallet, first."

Suddenly, the fire enclosed Ash and W before vanishing, revealing Pallet Town. Except for the absence of Ash's house and Professor Oak's burnt lab, it looked like normal. Wait, Professor Oak's lab-

"Yeah, kid," W responded as he tapped his cigar to knock away some ash, "without your Pokémon, Professor Oak couldn't defend his lab too well. Jessie and James stole all of his Pokémon, and in the process a fire started and burnt the lab to the ground. With his life's work destroyed and his grandson somewhere in Hoenn training, he broke down and is now living in Cerulean City as a janitor."

"That's terrible!" cried Ash.

"Thank you, Sherlock," replied W. "Your mom never had you at 18, so she went to college instead, becoming the renowned Professor Ketchum. She went on to marry Professor Elm instead of your father, and their son died when the Mask of Ice attempted to kidnap him but in the process lost control of Ho-oh."

"What?" Ash sputtered as Pallet Town vanished in a flurry of flames and the duo arrived in New Bark Town, where Professor Elm was comforting Delia as she cried over a grave.

"Because you and your friends never found Pryce's Piloswine, he decided to capture Celebi and use it to go back in time to stop his Piloswine from fleeing and perhaps reuniting his Lapras with its parents. He did this by capturing Ho-oh and using it to abduct kids to help him find Lugia. However, he lost control of Ho-oh and it decided to drop Elm and your mother's kid to his death. The Mask of Ice is still out there, too," W ranted as the scene changed once again from New Bark Town to the Mask of Ice's hideout and six abducted children.

Once again the scene changed, leaving Ash and W in what Ash recognized to be Cerulean City. "In Cerulean, things went downfall fast. Misty left on her tenth birthday to train and was still somewhere in Mt. Moon when a Team Rocket raid stole all of the gym's Pokémon and humiliated the three sisters running the gym. They had to resign in disgrace and fled to Hoenn to join Wallace's gym, and as a result Misty was left to run the gym with little training. She managed well for a couple of years, but-"

Suddenly, Ash and W were inside Misty's bedroom at the Cerulean gym. They could tell from the positioning of the sheets that Misty was unclothed, if only partially, and next to her bed was a small pile of cans and bottles. "The stress proved to be too much after her newborn Azurill was killed in a Team Rocket attack. She turned to alcohol and sex to escape her life, but it backfired. She became an alcoholic, and I can detect a fetus growing within her right now," W said as he once again tapped his cigar.

"Is a fetus like a parasite?" Ash asked in confusion.

"Not really. They're one of the earlier stages of human life. Poor thing will be born with FAS, though," W mused.

"But how does-"

"Kid," snapped W, "those Rockets that raided the gym were Jessie and James. If you had been there to fight them off, Misty's sisters would never have fled in disgrace and forced over four years of stress on their sister. Plus, since she never learned to care for baby Pokémon too well, the Azurill was rather sickly by the time it died. Plus, Misty herself made a vow not to partake in stuff like this," W said, gesturing to the sad scene, "for… personal reasons involving you and the others. She saw what this stuff did to people. Darkrai knows more about it, though, ask him."

Misty's room was once again consumed by fire, and Ash and W emerged at the Pewter City gym. Brock was sitting in his chair, his only Pokémon- an Onix and a Graveler- curled up next to him. Forrest and his siblings were nowhere to be seen. "Brock has spent these five years as a gym leader. He dealt with the stress better, but he's had to raise all of his siblings with his parents still nowhere in sight. He's never caught more Pokémon, and he's extremely unpopular with the local ladies. In this timeline with you gone, he never gave his brother the chance to be a gym leader, never got to train as a doctor, and never even met a woman interested in him."

"What's that?" Ash asked, pointing to a small badge that looked vaguely like a poorly drawn M next to the gym badge.

"Like I said, Brock dealt with the stress a little better. He dealt with it by joining Team Magma, and he has quite the criminal record now. He's also bitter enemies with Misty because she's a grunt in Team Aqua."

"They are?" Ash asked, horrified. W nodded. Once again the fire seemed to explode around them and suddenly the duo were at a place Ash recognized to be Navel Island. "Where's-" Ash began.

"The Orange League leaders were killed when the legendary birds went out of control here. In the process, Tracey, Professor Ivy, and many other people such as Drake died. It took the intervention of the military to stop the storms, with all three birds being shot down, leaving Lugia a lonely guardian, since his "chosen one" had been somewhere in Unova when he was needed."

Once again, the fire burst around Ash and W as they suddenly appeared in Pokémon Tower, the graveyard for dead Pokémon. In front of them was a gravestone with a picture of a Charmander carved in it. "Your Charizard never grew up," was all W said as the fire swirled around Ash and W. This time, they were in the Saffron Gym, or at least what looked like it, where a young girl Ash recognized to be Lisa from Mossdeep sat.

"Tate and Lisa never became accomplished double-battle trainers and decided to split up. Tate took the Mossdeep Gym Leader while Lisa went out on the road and eventually became Saffron's gym leader. Sabrina never stopped her psychic reign of terror since no one ever bothered to come back to challenge her- and as a result she simply turned people into dolls or watched as her father liberated them, only for them never to return. After she tried to turn Tobias the Darkrai into a doll, however, she was executed," W explained as he gestured to an urn decorated with somber Alakazams. "That's where her ashes are interred."

The fire once again consumed the scene and the duo was in a Goldenrod hotel. May sat on the edge of the bed, looking unhappily at her empty ribbon case.

"May traveled by herself for a long while," W narrated, "since she was a new trainer, her brother never traveled with her and even now he's just now going to choose his started, which will probably be a Torchic since your Treecko never influenced him. May figured out pretty quickly that she wanted to take part in contests, but she never really got any encouragement. Her main motivation besides her desire to compete, her rivalry, never emerged since May never met Harley or Drew, who already was focused on another girl, until the Hoenn Grand Festival. From Hoenn she decided to go to Kanto, which was unsuccessful since she never got to compete in the Grand Festival, and finally to Johto, where she is still yet to win any badges. In addition, her team is very rough and mostly unevolved- her Torchic didn't even evolve into Combusken until after her trip through Kanto."

"Why's May wearing all those clothes and jackets?" Ash asked, pointing at May, who was indeed wearing a lot of clothes.

"She was never a very strong trainer, and Viridian City was a bad place to be at night for a girl. Come along, kid," W said darkly as he tapped his cigar again.

"Uh, right," Ash said, as he had no idea what W was talking about. The fire exploded around Ash and W once again, and they were now in Twinleaf Town. While Misty and May had looked miserable, Dawn looked rather cheerful. Piplup, Buneary, Pachirisu, and Mamoswine all looked rather contented. Suddenly, Ash noticed that Dawn was crying.

"Why is Dawn-" Ash asked.

"Team Galactic."

"What?" Ash asked once more.

"When Cyrus summoned Dialga and Palkia, Professor Rowan, Cynthia, and Dawn herself had to deal with Cyrus, along with Looker. Since her only bond was with Mespirit, she had no choice but to rely on the other three to help in the fight against Cyrus, since the Lake Pixies needed to be together to fight Dialga and Palkia successfully. However, Giratina interfered. Since Dawn was a contest-lover, and not a battler, she failed to defeat Cyrus in the Torn World, so Cynthia had to intervene and beat Cyrus. However, since Giratina had never met Dawn and was not fond of humans, he attempted to kill not only Cyrus, but also Dawn and Cynthia. Cynthia was defeated and dragged to her doom by Cyrus, who was killed by Shadow Force just as he tried to push Cynthia towards a ledge… or, perhaps, to safety."

"So Dawn escaped alive?" Ash asked. W nodded.

"Team Galactic was defeated, but Dawn's heart was tainted by the death of Cyrus and Cynthia. While she did win the Grand Festival, her heart wasn't in it, and-"

W was interrupted as Dawn sighed and pulled on a piece of armor and helmet, an outfit Ash had seen on television. "Dawn is part of… Team Plasma?" Ash said, troubled. "Those guys seem more dangerous than Team Aqua or Team Magma!"

W nodded his head. "Seeing Pokémon kill man convinced Dawn that Pokémon and humans deserve to be separate. While she considers herself an exception, she has no qualms about trying to convince people to release their Pokémon."

Without warning, the fire suddenly ignited once more and warped the duo to Sootopolis City. The city was a wreck.

"What happened here?" Ash asked.

"Kyogre and Groudon. The gym leaders failed to stop them, and the Pokémon League could only stop the fight from spreading out of Sootopolis. However, Norman and Max interfered and brought Rayquaza to the battle. At the end, though, Rayquaza killed Norman, the Regis, who were being used as a barrier, killed Steven, a Magma commander died, and Lance took a direct Hyper Beam from Groudon. May was crushed, of course, but she eventually got over it. However, Sootopolis never rebuilt."

The fire exploded yet again and the duo was suddenly in Unova, specifically Striaton City. "Iris and Cilan haven't been in your life very much, but the only notable things are that Iris is traveling solo while Cilan is a gym leader."

"That's kind of sad," Ash muttered, "but I suppose I should be happy for them."

"Shut up, kid," W grumbled, "We have one last stop- one you should know well."

The fire exploded, one last time. This time, they were in the Viridian Gym, where three figures sat on tall thrones with red 'R's carved into them. In one throne sat an effeminate man with lavender hair. In another throne resided a woman with dark red hair and with a Seviper curled around her. In the last chair sat a Meowth.

"Jessie, James, and Meowth never had to deal with your opposition. As a result, they traveled through four regions and became the best Pokémon thieves Team Rocket has ever had. As a result, Giovanni, their boss, named them his successor before he was carted away to execution. Archer, Giovanni's right hand man, became Jessie, James, and Meowth's right hand man, and together they started a golden age of Rocket rule. In addition, Mew managed to convince Mewtwo to leave the planet with his Pokémon friends, and so they never came to stop Team Rocket or the Tree of Life."

"Anything else?" asked Ash as he began to pale even more. "Where's Pikachu? And Chimchar?"

"Pikachu is Team Rocket property. Chimchar killed his trainer because of all of his abuse and was… put to sleep as a result. In addition, Molly froze her valley and herself in Unown crystals, Sammy Oak never met you and Vicious was stopped by Dialga after he tried to kill the entire forest with Celebi, Latios and Latias gave their lives to stop Annie and Oakley, Jirachi had an eventless seven days while Butler commit suicide, Deoxys and Rayquaza still fought in LaRousse. Lucario is still in that staff, Manaphy was raised by a Pokémon Ranger it didn't much like before leaving for the sea, Darkrai still stopped Dialga and Palkia's fight while Dawn barely stopped the two titans, Shaymin and Giratina stopped Zero, Arceus grew tired of blowing up things and left for tea-" W said, counting on his fingers as his cigar slowly disintegrated.

"Left for tea?" Ash asked incredulously.

"Yeah. Oh yeah, Trip adopted Tepig, and-" W said before summoning a pocket watch that he quickly checked. "Drat. Kid, do you take back your wish yet?"

"Yeah," Ash said, "I would hate it if my friends went through that."

"Yeah, yeah, kid. I'm sure it's a wonderful life you guys have. Now, we're going back to the timeline. Oh yeah, and kid," W added, "don't worry about the money. You'll know what to do."

Ash blinked once or twice and suddenly W vanished as he winked at Ash, his cigar now resting in his fingers. Ash opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. He sat up and yawned and saw that the Pokémon, except for Pikachu, had already left, as had Iris and Cilan. As Ash walked out the door and into the hallway, a furious Nurse Joy charged into Ash.

"Where's the money?" she demanded.

"Right here, Nurse Joy," replied Professor Oak. Nurse Joy and Ash swiveled around to face Professor Oak, who was indeed holding a suitcase opened to show a lot of money. "However, Jessie of Team Rocket, you're not getting it."

"What? How did you see through my disguise?" Nurse Jessie demanded as she tore off her nurse outfit and revealed her usual black uniform. A Chansey approached and threw off its own costume, revealing Meowth, and James rushed in behind them.

"Mimey!" Delia yelled as she, too, ran into the hallway, "stop them before the motto! Psychic!"

Mimey nodded and picked up the trio of Rocket agents and threw them out the window and into a Rocket agent approaching with a briefcase of Pokéballs, sending them all careening into the snow where they were found by a menacing, computeristic snowflake who froze them with Blizzard and carted them off.

"How'd you know?" asked Ash as he, Pikachu, Oak, Delia, and Mimey walked into the lobby, where the real Nurse Joy and her Pokémon were rebuilding the wall while Iris and Cilan, along with Ash's Pokémon, helped.

"Chansey don't live in Unova, do they?" Oak said, and he laughed.

"Oh, I knew something was wrong," Ash said as he recalled meeting Nurse Jessie yesterday. Suddenly, Delia's Pokégear began to ring.

"Hello? Oh, hello Misty. Ash's right here," she said before handing the Pokégear to Ash.

"Hello, Misty?" Ash said as walked back into his room.

"You're welcome," Misty responded smugly.

"Huh?"

"I know what the Leagues do for insurance and I know from Cerulean's Pokémon Center that they always have to be ready for a stray Pokémon attack hitting the wall or the ceiling or windows or something. So I decided to call that Dawn girl you guys were traveling with-"

"Still mad?" Ash said, laughing.

"Possibly. Anyway, I asked her what she thought of this fee since I knew that Brock and May weren't in. Dawn said you had called her, and she saw which Pokémon Center it was specifically. We decided to call May in case Solidad had her phone, since Dawn said that she saw in a contest magazine that Solidad had been to Unova before. Solidad answered the phone and said that she knew the personal number of that nurse and called her, and lured her with the promise of more money to the videophones. We contacted Brock, who examined her and eventually declared her a fake after negotiating the price of the wall a little, and we decided that I would call Professor Oak and your mom and tell them about the phony Nurse Joy, and they went out to stop her. I bet it was Jessie," Misty finished.

"Yeah, it was. Oh, yeah, and sorry for not calling you. I'll try to remember in the future," Ash said.

"Really? How surprising," she said, pleasantly surprised, before continuing, "you sound happier though."

"I had this weird dream last night," Ash said, and he told her the dream as he walked into the bathroom, which was still steamy for some reason. After finishing his recap of the dream, Misty was silent (had Ash been on a videophone, he would have seen Misty's face turn bright red as he recapped her part in the dream, although whether that was due to embarrassment or anger only Darkrai, Mespirit, and herself, along with any psychics or Pokémon with Psychic or Mindreader, to know).

"Oh, and Misty, what did W mean when he said that you made that vow for some reason and Darkrai would know what he's talking about?" Ash asked.

"Um… well, I had a dream and Darkrai was in it and… why am I telling you this?" Misty stammered, before adding, "well, I've gotta go. You're welcome for us stepping in to stop Team Rocket. Bye." She abruptly hung up.

At the exact moment Misty said, "You're welcome," a patch of steam on the mirror vanished as the words "You're Welcome" were written across the rest of the mirror. In the reflection of the de-steamed area, W sat on top of a pile of towels, smoking a cigar, which seemed to produce no smoke or debris when W wasn't tapping it. W smiled slightly and held up his fingers like two 'V for Victory' signs. Ash whirled around but the Victini was nowhere to be seen, and then the steam levels seemed to rapidly disappear.

"Thank you, too, W," Ash said aloud and then walked out of the room, dialing May's Pokégear number.

* * *

"Good morning, Winston," said Dusknoir as he passed W in the hall. The Victini nodded.

"Another soul helped. Time to go help some more," Winston replied. "Tonight, I believe that I shall make a visit to Red or something."

"Tonight's the 'Dex Holders Christmas Party," replied Dusknoir. "Red's too friendly to be angry at the world or whatever it takes for you to do that weird event."

"You sure?" Winston asked as he threw the remains of his cigar in a nearby trashcan in Temporal Tower.

"Yes… Oh, wait," Dusknoir said. He vanished for a moment and then reappeared, saying, "actually, wait until tomorrow. He's going to have to stop Silver from killing Gold."

"Why are they fighting again?" Winston responded.

"Someone spiked the punch or something. Now, run along," Dusknoir ordered.

"Right. Good morning, Dusknoir," Winston replied and disappeared in a burst of flame. As he left, Dusknoir heard him say, "and a Merry Christmas to you, too."

"Yes, yes," replied Dusknoir, "and a Merry Christmas to you to."


End file.
